Murder, they blogged

The Meiers called an ambulance, but it was too late. Their beloved Megan was dead, a suicide victim crushed not by a romance gone wrong, but by an awful trick the truth of which she never suspected.

Lori Drew

It might be closer to the truth to say that she'd been ruined by a friendship gone wrong. But Josh Evans seems to be largely the work not of Megan's friends or peersbut rather of a peer's mother or her employee.

Relative newcomers to tight-knit Waterford Crossing, Lori and Curt Drew lived four doors down from the Meiers. Tina Meier had sold them their house. At one point the Drews' daughter and Megan were best friends. Or at least close friendsas can be typical of neighborhood friendships, this seems to have been a relationship of convenience, intense at times, but periodically cooler. When Megan switched schools, things between her and the Drews' daughter became more aloof.

Cooling relationships between teenage girls are not always marked by charity. Megan had supposedly gossiped about the Drews' daughter; some claimed she had said the Drew girl was a lesbian. This allegation, fueling the bitterness and jealousy between the two girls, was the background to the MySpace drama.

My Space logo

When Megan had started a MySpace account a year earlier without their permission, her parents had cracked down. But, approaching 14the age below which MySpace denies membershipshe begged for an account and made a convincing case, persuading her parents that this new technology was simply a normal and essential part of her peers' social lives. Tina and Ron drew up a careful list of rules to shield her girl from digital danger and things seemed to be going well. They supervised her watchfully and Tina periodically checked in, even "introducing" herself to Josh online.

Little did she know that "Josh" was a ruse designed to see what Megan might be saying about the Drew girl. But that child did not act alone in this plot. It was a canny idea brilliantly executed: invent a young girl's ideal, and, if she doesn't spill the beans to him, prompt her.

Megan's friend "Josh" eventually accused her of talking trash about her friends. When that didn't produce dirt on the Drew girl, "Josh" kept pressing and an online quarrel ensued. Other girls joined in the fray. In the end, "Josh" told Megan that the world would be better off without her.

And then she killed herself.